Yoga can help to build strength and flexibility in body and mind for your sport. Regular practice can help to improve your ease and efficiency of movement, posture and balance. Yoga used for preparation and recovery can help to avoid injury or quicken healing. Awareness and control of your breath is beneficial for focus and managing performance nerves.

Regular classes

What to expectYour Yoga for Sport session will follow a sequence of phases to prepare you for the main objective of the lesson and provide a complete workout for mind and body.

We begin with a few moments of mindfulness to let go of the worries and tensions of the day - this could be lying down or a moving exercise to bring your attention back into your body, often using your breath as the main focus. We'll then spend some time warming-up the body by mobilising the main joints such as the shoulders, spine and hips, and engage a range of muscles to prepare you for the main phase of the lesson. This phase is important as it develops your body awareness - learning your own unique range of motion and feeling muscles as they work and relax.

We'll also include core-strengthening exercises at this point so that you're ready to use the core stabilising muscles for dynamic practice. This doesn't mean crunches - we work on the deep stabilising muscles in the abdomen and pelvic floor using poses such as the Cat Stretch (right) and Plank. If you've done Pilates before you may recognise some of the techniques.The next phase in this logical progression is to engage the smaller postural muscles using balance poses such as Tree pose or Warrior 3.

This competes our preparation of the body for the next phase of dynamic movement, which will work the whole body and requires dynamic control to perform. This same preparation is what creates your sustainable foundation for sport - training the large and small muscles of the body to react to movement quickly and efficiently, with flexibility and strength in the joints.The dynamic phase of your practice will warm your body further and raise your heart rate - athletes tend to enjoy this phase as you might break a sweat! It's also a great opportunity to practice moving in rhythm with your breath, and growing your respiratory strength, which is essential in all sports training and performance. We often use an intense form of breathing called victorious (or ujjayi) breathing which creates a hum or vibration with each breath.If you're familiar with Hatha Flow yoga then you may see many similarities.

From here the lesson begins to slow down, as we move to the floor for a range of static poses. Each posture is held for 20 seconds or more, possibly even for several minutes, to enable a deep stretch for the muscles and fascia (surface connective tissue). It's only after the warming dynamic movement that we'll be able to fully release tight muscles. Many athletes are limited by their flexibility so this phase is essential in slowly improving this aspect of your physical wellbeing. Its important not to be competitive in how deeply you can stretch here - each of us has our own 'edge' of muscle tension. Your goal is to find that edge and then breathe deeply into those places to aid release of the muscles. Slowly you will find improved flexibility if you follow this approach.

We'll end each session with an opportunity to try a longer breathing practice (known as pranayama). This might include alternate nostril breathing or a full three-part breath. These practices calm and balance the body and mind ready for your final relaxation. Lying in corpse pose is the most important part of the session, and for many the most enjoyable.

TestimonialsAndy (28) made the following comment about his Yoga for Sport experience;"As a keen sportsman I went to Rebecca's class intent on improving my flexibility and reducing my chances of injury. However, having never done yoga before I was sceptical whether it could deliver any benefit at all. The results have been vast. I was amazed at the speed of improvement with the unexpected bonus of the relaxation. I refer to my weekly session as the 'oasis' of my week. I like the encouraging approach Rebecca brings to yoga making you feel totally at ease. I live for intensity in my life but to balance that I thoroughly recommend yoga for your body and mind"

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